Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Frontier Co-op Organic Chili Powder. This is one of those simple products that ends up being a really great addition to your home.  I don’t know anyone that cooks frequently that doesn’t keep some chili powder in the kitchen at all times.  In general most “chili powder” isn’t that great which is why a lot of times when I make chili I do everything myself.  I use a mix of seasonings but the chili I get from processing dry chili peppers.

It isn’t hard but it is time consuming and at times you just want to grab something and go with it.  So I was out recently and decided to see if we could do a bit better.  I remembered being happy with several other items I recommend from Frontier Organics so I figured I’d check and see what they have.  One quick glance at the ingredients list made me pretty optimistic.  Right until I saw, organic rice concentrate.  It was clearly a minor amount but my first question was WHY?

Turns out there is a good reason, they use organic rice concentrate to replace silicon dioxide.  What?  Silicon dioxide, why do any of them have that?  Well, it’s an anti caking agent again used in super small amounts and for a good reason.  Anyone who’s made their own chili powder and tried to store it knows if there is even say 10% humidity in the air, if not perfectly sealed it will turn into a solid brick. Oh and if you vac seal it in a bag, it will also turn into a solid brick. So all in I have no issue with a bit of rice concentrate to prevent that.

Now lets look at the full list of ingredients, they are organic chili peppers, organic cumin, organic oregano, organic coriander, organic garlic, organic rice concentrate, organic allspice, organic cloves.  Let me tell you what got me interested.  It is the allspice and cloves.  Those are two of my 4 secrets to chili and anyone that knows to use them in chilli powder knows a thing or two about it.

Look, everyone thinks of chili as “spicy” (meaning hot) but good chili isn’t very hot in reality.  It has a low heat but lots of spice flavors.  I actually like mine pretty hot compared to many but I don’t push it when making it because other people will eat it too.  I can always increase the heat in my own bowl with a bit with hot sauce or say some cayenne or some fresh hot peppers, etc.  What you want in good chili is flavor, lots of flavor.  And spices like allspice and clove not only deliver they enhance other flavors.

So what are my four secret chili powder spices so you know them all?  Hmm, should I tell you?  Well you know two already, allspice and clove.  The other two are, should I, not sure yet read on and may be I will tell you.

Anyway we decided to do tamales for the family this year at Christmas and the best “sauce” for those is of course chili and son of gun but I was out of chili powder.  I found this stuff and since I have had good results with other products from Frontier I gave it a shot.  The moment I opened it and sniffed it I knew it was going to be great.  The spice and floral notes are just awesome.  A quick taste told me it was even better than I thought and spicy sure but not hot.  Again you can always add heat but you can’t take it out.

I can’t really give you a recipe for my chili becuase like many things I just make it, though I will do my best to give you a guide as to what I do.  In general I use about 2 TBS of chili powder per pound of meat, taste it and cook it down a bit and adjust from there.  A typical batch I make is 4 lbs of meat and yes no beans go in my chili.

In spite of what I said the idea that “real chili doesn’t have beans” is retarded nonsense.  Adding something to a thing doesn’t stop it from being a thing.  Not to mention Chili as we know it originated on cattle drives.  Cowboys didn’t kill a cow every day on the range, they were paid to deliver them, not eat them.  The chili these guys ate was more beans than meat.  Beans are cheap and store dried for years with no special treatment.  Yes I am 100% meat with mine but let’s be honest it is a luxury of modern times.

To make my chili I first brown the meat, I use 3 lbs of good course ground beef and 1 lb of sage breakfast sausage.  I make my own but store bought is fine.  Once browned I remove the meat and drop in finely chopped celery, onion, peppers and jalapeno peppers. (I use my mini food processor to get a very fine chop and do everything faster) I cook them down till well reduced, then toss in a few finely chopped garlic cloves and cook that for another minute or two.

After that I add one can of tomatoes (some don’t like tomato in chili if you don’t, don’t use them) and cook those down about another 10 minutes.  I then add the meat back in, cover with stock (chicken is fine, beef stock is better), I dump in one can of beer and bring it to a simmer.  I now stir in 2 TBS of of chili powder per pound of meat so with 4 pounds that is 8 TBS (level).  I then stir in my other dry ingredients.  What are they, okay I will tell you….

• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Smoked Paprika
• Green Cardamom Pods – I Use These
• Star Anise – I Use These
• Bay Leaf
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I would also add about 1/4 tsp of ground clove and a tsp of allspice if they were not already in the powder and yes the Cardamom and Star Anise are my other secrets.  Salt and pepper are always to taste.  On the other stuff smoked paprika, garlic powder and onion powder for a batch this size about a tablespoon of each.

On Green Cardamom I use whole pods and about 2 per pound of meat so 8 for a 4 pound batch I use about 1 whole Star Anise per two pounds of meat so 2 for a 4 pound batch. The Anise and Cardamom are ground in a coffee grinder, seeds pods and all.  On the Bay leaf, I just throw in about 4 whole leaves in when I add the liquid.

I simmer this about an hour, keeping an eye on it and topping it up with stock or water if it starts to get too low.  Be very observant here because if it boils down too much it will burn on the bottom and ruin everything.  At that point I do a final taste test and if it lacks anything I add more chili powder to taste, stir it in and simmer a few moments and taste again.

So how did it turn out.  Well the family demolished it and Dorothy has had me make it two more times since then to just eat it outright.  This is seriously the best “quick chili” I have ever made.  I am not saying it is as good as my all from scratch stuff that starts out with dried New Mexico, de Abrol and Ancho peppers, etc.  But it isn’t far off and a hell of a lot easier and faster to make.

While I haven’t used this stuff yet for other things I will and I know it will be great.  Examples are rubs I make for skin on chicken almost always have some chili powder in them.  Rubs for smoked pork shoulder also always have chili powder and LOTS OF ALLSPICE, yes that is a secret and grind it from whole berries by the way.  There are many other things that chili powder is great for as well, like spare ribs, just a bit in soups, etc.  And if you don’t use chili powder when you make wings, I just don’t know what to tell you.

So give this stuff a shot.  It isn’t cheap but cheap isn’t always good.  This stuff is about 10X better than a generic brand like McCormick Chili Powder and about 2X the price per ounce.  Not to mention it is organic so it has less toxic ick in it.  I consider that a great price to value ratio and at a cost where it really isn’t a big deal to buy better quality.  I mean it is chili powder not a sports car.

So check out Frontier Organics Chili Powder and even without my two extra special spices it will blow you away, I promise.

 * Remember, you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com.